The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

Thing To Do Today: celebrate.

Have your knees gone mouldy?

No?

Then let's celebrate!

If your knees have gone mouldy, then many commiserations, but you must still have something to celebrate. Have a day-that-ends-in-a-y celebration. Just something small. Put an extra sugar lump in your tea, or wear socks without holes in them. That sort of thing.

If even that's a bit rowdy for you, then there are yet quieter sorts of celebration. Mass or Holy Communion is celebrated in a church, for instance, and that hardly involves smiling or speaking to other people at all.

The ungodly and unsocial amongst us can always fall back on celebrating the achievements of someone else: William Wilberforce, say, or Hannibal, or Shane Warne, or Tchaikovsky, or Walt Disney.

We can celebrate the first rose of summer or (hello Southern Hemisphere!) the lovely frosts of winter. We can celebrate our team's success, or celebrate its coming second. We can celebrate the fact that it's nearly the Olympics, or that the Olympics doesn't last that long.

If you're still breathing, then celebrate!

Thing To Do Today: celebrate. This word arrived in English in the 1400s. It comes from the Latin word celebrāre, from celeber which can mean numerous or thronged or renowned.